


And the kids round there live just like shadows always quiet, holding hands

by buckybunnyteeth



Series: Flashvibe week(s) 2k16 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, M/M, flashvibeweek2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 07:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6795721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybunnyteeth/pseuds/buckybunnyteeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been six months without a lead when Barry finally gets a whisper about where Cisco is.</p><p> </p><p>Flashvibe Week Monday May 9th/Day 1; Spies / Secret Agents AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the kids round there live just like shadows always quiet, holding hands

“Birds are the eyes of heaven, and flies are the spies of hell.”  
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

 

It’s been six months without a lead when Barry finally gets a whisper about where Cisco is. Six months since Dr Wells revealed himself to be Eobard Thawne, terrorist and murderer. Six months since he revealed how he was using them all, all their powers and skills, to build a weapon that would tear the very earth apart by creating a black hole over central city. Six months since they defeated him and he disappeared taking Cisco with him. 

Since then the Organization has recovered somewhat. Oliver, who started this whole thing in counterpoint to the barbaric nature of A.R.G.U.S, has shifted the structure so that the whole thing is more democratic than the dictatorship it had started out as. Now everyone gets a say in missions and decisions, in how and when they risk their lives and who for. 

Their organisation grows each day as more powered people realize they want to stand up against the corrupt nature of the world, and that maybe putting on tights and a cape isn’t the way to best go about it. 

They call themselves A.P.E.S; All-Purpose Enforcement Squad. 

All of them stand for the protection of the oppressed, the transparency of information and the eventual betterment of government and the world. Aka they’re spies, but they have a moral compass and lines that they will not cross no matter how much money or reason they are given. No kill shots unless there is no other way. Never leave civilians behind. Never let the job make you into something you’re not. 

Barry had been bought into the company by Oliver once he found out about the accident. They’d purchased S.T.A.R Labs some months before, and them combined with Queen Consolidateds cutting edge technology meant that Barry got to survive through his coma. When he woke up the first thing he saw was Cisco Ramon’s face. And the first thing he thought was; Beautiful. The next thing he saw was Caitlin asking him to urinate in a cup. Less beautiful.

He was instantly swept up into training and then working for A.P.E.S. They were locating metahumans and offering them safe spaces to train their powers, and locating metas who were determined to cause pain with their powers so they could be contained. Barry became their top agent overnight, surprising everyone but Oliver. Barry sometimes wonders if he got some kind of foresight power from those years on the island. 

And Doctor Wells was there the whole time. Smiling and helping.

He was the one who recommended that because Barry’s powers made him a close quarter’s agent he needed someone else in the field for long range. He was the one who had trained Cisco to be a sniper months before. He was the one who convinced Oliver that they were already best friends and wouldn’t need a trial period before going into missions together. He set the whole thing up. 

Barry sometimes wonders if he meant for them to fall in love too. 

Because they did. They fell hard and fast for each other. Sometime between the adrenaline filled missions, the hours training or in the lab, and the Star Trek marathons, Barry fell head over heels for Cisco Ramon. 

He wonders if Wells orchestrated that so he wouldn’t see his shadiness until it was too late. 

The Singularity lost them so many good agents. Lost them Ronnie. And Eddie. 

And exactly sixty two civilians were killed in the destruction. People argue that that’s a small number considering the destruction. But those people get to leave, get to live in without the crushing weight of sixty two souls, twelve of them children, crushing their chest.

Somewhere between falling out of the singularity and calling in back up from Starling City, Eobard regained consciousness and escaped with Cisco. The footage shows Cisco trying to fight him off before Thawne restrains him with a Boot around his neck. They hadn’t even known Cisco was a meta until then.

The months that followed were hell. 

Oliver retreated in on himself and obviously struggled everyday against becoming too soft and too much like Amanda Waller. 

Iris joined up and forced Barry away from his ‘I work alone’ ideals, following him into the field and watching his back because lord knows he didn’t care if anyone plunged a knife into it. She kicked ass and took names and became the best Agent in A.P.E.S in no time. 

A.P.E.S grew. More people wanted to help protect the world, because the world still needed protecting, no matter who was missing.

“We can’t keep ignoring things to search for him, Barry,” Oliver told him one day when they were sitting in the mud in Northern Spain, another failed lead sizzling out around them, “He’s family and I get that you want to tear the world apart looking for him. But other people are suffering and we need out resources helping them.”

“So what, we just give up on him? Leave him with We- _Thawne_? Leave him to _rot_?”

“No,” Oliver says his face soft but his words absolute, “You’re killing yourself Barry. Let me put someone else on this. Someone with fresh eyes.”

“One of our own? That would still be using out resources.”

Oliver sighs and pinches his nose. 

“Not one of our own,” He admits, “Someone else.”

“What kind of someone else?”

“An Ex.”

John Constantine, who very much works for himself and not for any shoddy government agency thank you very much, shows up the next day. The whole team watches with barely hidden grins as the ‘Occult detective and master of the dark arts’ shamelessly flirts with Oliver who keeps sending scared glances at Felicity (who is barely keeping herself from laughing).

“Don’t you worry, Love,” Constantine said to Barry with a cheeky grin after they gave him all the information about Cisco’s disappearance, “I’ll find your man-” he flicked his eyes back to Oliver, “-for a price.”

Oliver didn’t hesitate before throwing Constantine an envelope full of cash.

“Right,” John said, stuffing the money into his coat, “I’ll be off. I’ve got an informant who might know where your man is, but it will take me a while to get to ‘im.”

“Where is he?” Iris asked.

“Hell.”

They didn’t realize he wasn’t joking until after he had left. 

So Barry steps back. He stops spending all night following leads and running himself into the ground. He throws himself into every mission, watches Iris’s back and becomes the exemplary agent he was before, and he waits.

And then he gets a letter, an honest to god letter, from Constantine. Apparently he sent it straight from hell. 

_Your lover is in Paris. Good luck – Johnny._

They fly to Paris before they even think of cluing Oliver in on the whole thing. All Barry can think about is finally getting his boyfriend, his Cisco back. And ripping Dr Wells’ head off.

Iris finds the compound in Paris in no time. There’s no time for advanced re con, no time for proper planning. They go in hot, Iris with her guns drawn and Barry zipping ahead to take out as many bad guys with speed punches as he can.

When they finally find Cisco, deep within the compound, Barry feels his heart break all over again. 

He’s strapped into a machine, a big metal chair with thick cables running out of it into computers. His face is covered by a pair of goggles and every now and again he twitches and flinches like he is having a particularly bad dream. His hair is long a wild and he looks too thin and Barry feels like crying and burning the world to the ground at the same time.

He zips over to the chair and wrenches the glasses off of his face. For a heart stopping moment Barry thinks he’s too late, that Cisco is gone, left brain dead by the chair.

But then a dopey grin spreads across Cisco’s face. It’s the most beautiful thing Barry’s ever seen.

“I knew you were coming,” Cisco croaks, voice scratchy, “I saw it. I knew you would save me.”

Barry cupped his loves face and grinned back.

“We’ll always find each other.”

Cisco chuckles and Barry gives into the need of wanting to feel the sound with his lips. They are still kissing when Iris drops in from the sky light, two cords ready to zip them up and out of there.

“Kiss later, nerds,” She teases, though her eyes are misty when she finally lays them on Cisco again, “Wells is on his way, we have to move.”

They’re flying over the English Channel when Cisco stirs from his restless sleep against Barry’s side, and asks; “How did you find me in the end.”

Iris snorts.

“That’s between the Devil and John Constantine.”

Cisco frowns and looks up at Barry.

“Do I want to know?”

“Not really. It’s a pretty confusing story.”

“Confusing how?”

“Well, Magic is a thing.”

Cisco pauses for a moment before thunking his head back down on Barry’s shoulder.

“You’re right,” he groans, “I don’t want to know.”

Barry chuckles and for the first time in months he feels at peace. He is in a helicopter flying over England with the two people he loves most in the world. He lets himself lay his head down on top of Cisco’s and slips into the best sleep he can ever remember having.

**Author's Note:**

> I really have a no excuse for all of this. its a little shit, but I like it. Happy Barrisco Week everyone!


End file.
